Smiling Makes Me Smile
Two posts in one day? What the hell??
Seriously, though, the entire time I was out running my weekend errands today, I was thinking about how I needed to write about the whole process... especially the whole process today.
I have heard a lot of people complain about how they hate that, in order to effectively do their grocery shopping, they need to go to like three different stores. But me? I LOVE IT! There are different wonderful things that fit into my new healthy diet at Earth Fare, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Heinen's, and even Giant Eagle and Target. And today, I went to ALL of those places (except for Whole Foods, which is only inconveniently located on the East Side). I even went to two different Targets, because I had already gone to one and then realized that I had prescriptions to pick up at a different one.
But here's the thing of it. I really enjoy going to these different places. I love them all for different reasons. I get excited when I find new products I can use at each one. And on a gorgeous Indian Summer kind of a day like today, I love the driving. From Cleveland to Rocky River to Westlake, back to Rocky River and back to Cleveland, I would normally drive with the windows down and mostly on the highway. But today, I started on surface streets, just to enjoy the early autumn loveliness more. And not only were the windows down, but the TOP was down, too. Because, yeah... Ryan bought a convertible.
For those of you who don't know, Ryan is a mechanical genius. He buys, fixes, and flips busted-ass cars as a way to make some extra dough. But this one backfired on him. He picked up a 1996 BMW convertible with a blown head gasket for three hundred bucks. A few days later, it runs great and I am completely in love with it. 100% my father's child on this one. I managed to convince him we should keep it, fix up all the cosmetic damage (of which there is quite a bit) and sell it next spring, when people are more likely to be interested in a convertible. That way we have a spare running car over the winter - and I can keep driving it whenever the weather is awesome. Which seems to be a lot these days.
Now back to my point...
As I drove around in this awesome car with my new fun hair flying in the wind, I could not help but smile. And the more I smiled, the more I WANTED to smile. I walked around these stores, and I found myself smiling at people... people I'd normally find annoying. And a funny thing happens when you smile at someone who would normally scowl at your turquoise-haired, heavily-tattooed, vintage-punk-rock-t-shirt-wearing ass... they get confused and smile back.
While I was happily waiting in line at the Target Service Desk to exchange the wrong handles I had bought for our kitchen cabinets for the right ones, this angry woman behind me loudly said something to her friend about how she hoped I was not planning to try to buy my basket full of items here - that that's what the registers were for. It was a bitchy, passive-aggressive thing to do, and I WAS legitimately in line to make an exchange, but I just smiled and laughed. A moment later, a woman in a day-glo yellow workout top walked by. Normally, I would have muttered in my head at how stupid the 80's revival fashion shit is, but instead I thought that really... she has a lot of balls to wear something so crazy bright and good for her! And it made me smile more. I smiled at the lady who got irritated with me stopping to look at the green beans for too long at Earth Fare and she smiled back. I smiled at the girl with Downs Syndrome asking her parents if she could buy a jar of coconut oil, and when they sort of irritably told her she did not need that, she replied, "But coconuts are nice." Hell yeah they are, girl! And don't let your grumpy-no-fun folks tell you otherwise!
I realized as the day went on that the more things I found to smile about, the more MORE things appeared to smile about.
So many smiles, and I haven't even MADE it to see Ryan play with his Irish band yet today... more smiles are bound to happen.
Love love love, (and also smiles)
Phoebe
Seriously, though, the entire time I was out running my weekend errands today, I was thinking about how I needed to write about the whole process... especially the whole process today.
I have heard a lot of people complain about how they hate that, in order to effectively do their grocery shopping, they need to go to like three different stores. But me? I LOVE IT! There are different wonderful things that fit into my new healthy diet at Earth Fare, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Heinen's, and even Giant Eagle and Target. And today, I went to ALL of those places (except for Whole Foods, which is only inconveniently located on the East Side). I even went to two different Targets, because I had already gone to one and then realized that I had prescriptions to pick up at a different one.
But here's the thing of it. I really enjoy going to these different places. I love them all for different reasons. I get excited when I find new products I can use at each one. And on a gorgeous Indian Summer kind of a day like today, I love the driving. From Cleveland to Rocky River to Westlake, back to Rocky River and back to Cleveland, I would normally drive with the windows down and mostly on the highway. But today, I started on surface streets, just to enjoy the early autumn loveliness more. And not only were the windows down, but the TOP was down, too. Because, yeah... Ryan bought a convertible.
For those of you who don't know, Ryan is a mechanical genius. He buys, fixes, and flips busted-ass cars as a way to make some extra dough. But this one backfired on him. He picked up a 1996 BMW convertible with a blown head gasket for three hundred bucks. A few days later, it runs great and I am completely in love with it. 100% my father's child on this one. I managed to convince him we should keep it, fix up all the cosmetic damage (of which there is quite a bit) and sell it next spring, when people are more likely to be interested in a convertible. That way we have a spare running car over the winter - and I can keep driving it whenever the weather is awesome. Which seems to be a lot these days.
Now back to my point...
As I drove around in this awesome car with my new fun hair flying in the wind, I could not help but smile. And the more I smiled, the more I WANTED to smile. I walked around these stores, and I found myself smiling at people... people I'd normally find annoying. And a funny thing happens when you smile at someone who would normally scowl at your turquoise-haired, heavily-tattooed, vintage-punk-rock-t-shirt-wearing ass... they get confused and smile back.
While I was happily waiting in line at the Target Service Desk to exchange the wrong handles I had bought for our kitchen cabinets for the right ones, this angry woman behind me loudly said something to her friend about how she hoped I was not planning to try to buy my basket full of items here - that that's what the registers were for. It was a bitchy, passive-aggressive thing to do, and I WAS legitimately in line to make an exchange, but I just smiled and laughed. A moment later, a woman in a day-glo yellow workout top walked by. Normally, I would have muttered in my head at how stupid the 80's revival fashion shit is, but instead I thought that really... she has a lot of balls to wear something so crazy bright and good for her! And it made me smile more. I smiled at the lady who got irritated with me stopping to look at the green beans for too long at Earth Fare and she smiled back. I smiled at the girl with Downs Syndrome asking her parents if she could buy a jar of coconut oil, and when they sort of irritably told her she did not need that, she replied, "But coconuts are nice." Hell yeah they are, girl! And don't let your grumpy-no-fun folks tell you otherwise!
I realized as the day went on that the more things I found to smile about, the more MORE things appeared to smile about.
So many smiles, and I haven't even MADE it to see Ryan play with his Irish band yet today... more smiles are bound to happen.
Love love love, (and also smiles)
Phoebe
Comments
"If you smile at me, I will understand, 'cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language."
Love thinking of you doing smiley errands! Mum